


Cut

by DPPatricks



Category: Starsky & Hutch
Genre: Banter, Gen, Humor, Partnership, Real Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-08-09 18:40:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20123050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DPPatricks/pseuds/DPPatricks
Summary: A long day on location, from PMG’s POV.





	Cut

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn’t privy to the conversations, of course, or PMG’s thoughts, but I was an observer of all the activities. 
> 
> This story was written in response to the Friday Fiction Prompt, July 26, on the Starsky&Hutch Fans&FanFiction FaceBook page. The prompt word was, ‘cut.’ Thanks, Paula, for the inspiration and then the enthusiastic beta! And a special THANKS to Daisy_Morgan.

“CUT! Cut, cut cut!” I raised my tied wrists out of the overhead hook and lowered my arms. Damn! My shoulders already ached and we had hours more to shoot. “Sorry, guys, that was my fault. I walked all over Patricia’s lines. Re-load and re-set, please. Check the lighting ‘cause the sun’s gone behind those trees. We’ll go again as soon as you’re ready.”

David walked up to me and handed me his beer. “Relax. It’s going great! Only the posse arriving and the fight scene left. You’ll be wrapped way before you begin losing the light.”

I shook my head, angry with myself. “Have to get Patricia’s and my dialog right first.”

He put his arm around my shoulders. “You will. You’ve already done your cover shots of the disciples. That was the tough part.”

“Boring part, you mean.”

He nodded. “That, too.”

“Geez, I think I’m gonna hear that chanted name in my sleep for a long time!” I drank half the contents of the bottle before giving it back. “Thanks!” 

As the black-robed figures and white-clad woman wandered away or sat down on apple boxes, the prop man approached. “How are your wrists, Paul? Want me to untie them?”

I thought about it before shaking my head. “Naw, they’re fine. We’re gonna re-shoot this right away. Afterward, okay?”

“Okay.” He went to collect the weapons until the next shot.

David walked with me to the edge of the enclosure and we both looked out over what had once been the Griffith Park Zoo. “I think I’ve got a love-hate relationship with this place,” I said.

“I believe it.” He passed the beer again.

I gulped sloppily and wiped the overflow from my chin with the backs of my grubby hands. “It must have been hell for the animals that lived here, but it’s a director’s dream for a nightmare script. I’ve never seen so many dark holes and tunnels, plus sinister gates and grills, in one practical location.” I looked around at the bars of the cage we were standing in. “Wonder what this thing was used for?”

David shuddered. “I don’t think I want to know.”

I took one more swallow and gave the bottle back with a grimace. “Didn’t leave you much.”

He finished it and grew pensive. “You think Spelling assigned this script to you, and the one he’s earmarked for me, because he hoped we’d make a mess of them? And he’d have to hire people to come in and pick up the pieces?”

I jabbed him lightly in the side. “If that was the case, he screwed up, so far. And you’re gonna make him re-think his decision, if that was his plan, when you ace yours!”

David looked at me with sudden vulnerability. “You really think so?”

“I _know_ so!”

“What makes you so sure?”

“You’ve got an excellent eye! Plus, you plan and work things out long before they could become problems. Trust me, David, your shoot will go off like clockwork.” I glanced around quickly to make sure we weren’t being overheard. “Not to jinx myself or anything but just like mine has, up to now.”

David slid me one of his sly smiles. “I’ve known seasoned directors who would have had palpations at the logistics of the three days you’ve spent up here.”

“You’re gonna spent two days and one entire night under your car just over…” I gestured with my bound hands, “_that_ hill! That’s the location you’ve chosen, right?”

“Right.” He sighed heavily. “God! I hope I luck out with the weather like you did.”

“Whatever you get, you’ll deal.”

“I wish I had the faith in me you seem to have.” 

“Faith in each other, Davey, that’s what always gets us through.”

He looked me in the eye. “Would you be ready to do all this again, if they give you a chance next season?”

“Oh, hell yeah!” I sent him one of my lop-sided grins that usually cracks him up. “It’s been a bitch, but I’ve loved almost every minute of it. Which you already know ‘cause you’ve been here the whole time.”

“Not the whole --”

“Damn near! Even though you weren’t on the call sheet until today, you got here every morning while it was still dark and never left before wrap.”

He shrugged and gave me that ‘I’ve got your back’ look. “Couldn’t leave you out here all by yourself, could I?”

I was trying to think of some flippant reply when he nudged me gently. “Will you show up on my location without being on the sheet?”

I was anxious to reassure him because he didn’t need to worry and wonder for a month. “Like Huggy would say, ‘you gotta ask?’” I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay away. Davey would be making his directorial debut with a technically difficult script, same as me, and I’d give him all the support I could. It was what we did for each other. “‘Course I will.”

Before things got too mushy, I signaled a passing Craft Service guy below the cage. “Hey, Roy, would you bring us a couple of beers, please?”

Roy took the empty from David’s hand. “Right away!”

I looked at my best friend in the whole world. “I sure am glad you didn’t pay attention to the call sheet’s arrival time today. You and Second Unit got the sunrise and establishing shots I needed.”

“Thanks for allowing me to do it. Especially since I’m not officially a director yet.”

I elbowed him in the ribs again. “Coulda fooled me.”

“And, since you mentioned Second Unit, may I ask a favor of you?”

“Anything.”

“When we get over that hill in a few weeks, would you be willing to take a unit and do a few of the Torino-racing-up-the-mountain shots my story outline calls for?”

I grinned at him. “Me? Racing-the-Torino shots?” He smiled at my sarcasm. “Consider it done, partner!”

“Thanks. In advance.”

“Speaking of the Torino, are we ever going to be able to get you out of the driver’s seat after this?” David’s so pretty when he blushes, I kept teasing. “I thought Picerni was gonna have a stroke when you tore up those dirt roads.”

“You said to make it obvious that Hutch isn’t used to that powerful engine. Coupled with his anxiety, he’d have trouble keeping it out of a ditch.”

“You sure made a believer outta me!”

“You also wanted the car close enough to the cameras that there’d be no doubt it wasn’t my stunt driver!”

“And you did it all perfectly. My one-take genius!” I chuckled because I couldn’t help it. “But did you have to leave it at a sixty degree angle on that hillside?”

“Wasn’t sixty, Paul. Forty-five… maybe.”

“Pretty sure I heard the transportation captain muttering something about a week in the shop to fix the front suspension.”

David adopted total nonchalance. “Guess it’s a good thing they’ve got a spare or two in the garage then, isn’t it?”

Roy showed up with the beers and handed them to us. “Need anything else?”

I took one of the bottles. “No, thanks, Roy. We’ve got a re-take to do here, then long shots of the good guys showing up. We’ll break for lunch and, afterward, block out and shoot the fight scene. Just make sure there’s plenty of water and juice available all afternoon, okay?”

“Yes, sir!” 

David and I drank in companionable silence until my A.D. hollered, “We’re ready, Paul!”

I gave Davey my bottle and turned back to the center of the cage. Patricia and all the chanters were in position. 

*******

It was getting late and the sun was descending toward the mountain. I only had another hour of good light. The Torino, plus black-and-whites arriving at the bottom of the hill, then David piling out and starting up the slope, had been shot in one take, though, so I was feeling pretty good about getting this puppy in the can, on time and under budget. 

David’s mad dash up the hill was another one-take masterpiece. He semi-stumbled only once and his desperation was nearly palpable. God, I love that man! He gives me everything, every take! And not just this episode, either. I’ve never worked with anyone as professional and dedicated before. I know I couldn’t do this series if someone else had been cast as Hutch. Early on, they gave us the phrase, ‘me an’ thee,’ and it stuck. Once in a while, when things got fraught, we’d just look at each other and the connection was there. 

So, now, the fight scene. We’d choreographed every detail and I was hoping we could get it in one long master. With three cameras, I figured I’d be able to cut it together into a pretty exciting thirty seconds. Even if we didn’t get it this time, there was enough light to try again. And I’d print everything so that I had plenty of footage to work with.

Okay, I was ready, Patricia was ready, the hooded figurers were ready, and my crew was ready. Davey had been running up and down next to the cage, making sure he’d be out of breath. I raised my arms and hooked my wrists again before I nodded at my Assistant Director.

Three slates were snapped in front of three camera lenses and the A.D. yelled, “Action!”

I was only peripherally aware of Davey and his antagonists, plus the arriving uniforms, because I was having to concentrate on Patricia cutting my bonds, then wrestling with the cultist who was trying to bury a cleaver in my head. I knew nothing had gone wrong because nobody had yelled a preemptive, “Cut!” Subliminally, I thought the sound of weapons hitting the cage bars wouldn’t need dubbing. That was always neat, and cost-saving.

The fisticuffs ended. Patricia threw herself onto my legs and Davey was there, his left hand at the back of my neck, his right gripping my arm. I knew the lowest camera was pushing in to a three-shot, so I latched onto his lapels and let my head fall forward while mumbling my stupid line. ‘What took ya so long?’ was unbelievably trite but David and I hadn’t been able to come up with anything better. He mumbled his - same excuse, and I leaned into his chest. 

It was over. I was tired, and I guess I let go a little. I started to laugh. Maybe I’d even leave that in the final edit. 

David’s strength flowed into me through his hands as I heard the A.D. holler, “Cut! Print everything!”

Patricia jumped up and accepted a dressing gown and slippers from wardrobe before heading toward the parking lot and her motor home.

“Whaddaya think, Paul?” the A.D. asked. “Do it again?”

“Did we get it?” I wasn’t quite ready to move yet.

“Oh, yeah,” he told me.

I glanced around at all the people waiting for my decision. They were clearly ready to do it over if I wanted. David helped me to my feet and kept an arm around my waist while I shook my head. “Nope. That’ll do it. Thanks, people, you were great! I couldn’t have done it without you.” I held up my arms, lashes dangling. “That’s a wrap!”


End file.
